The USC Gould School of Law offers a premiere inter-professional education to highly motivated students preparing for a career that will span the coming decades. As the legal profession continues to evolve, no school is better positioned to provide the education that will be the platform for the next generation of lawyers who will practice on a world-wide stage. The legal profession is dynamic, and USC Gould School of Law has always taken pride in adapting its methods to provide a legal education tailored to needs of the current environment, while maintaining its strong core commitments.

From your first day on campus, you'll notice that USC Gould School of Law is different. It's small enough to actually be a community in the real sense of the word even though USC is one the country's largest research universities, and located in the second largest city in the U.S. People know your name here, faculty and administration are accessible, and your success is everyone's priority.

USC Gould School of Law is a private, highly selective national law school with a 100-year history and a reputation for academic excellence. Under the leadership of a stellar, energetic faculty, the school's rigorous, interdisciplinary program focuses on the law as an expression of social values and an instrument for implementing social goals. USC is known for its diverse student body, its leadership in clinical education, and its tight-knit alumni network composed of national leaders in the legal profession, business, and the public sector. With approximately 185-190 J.D. students and 125-150 graduate international students in each class, the school is small, informal, and collegial.

J. Thomas McCarthy Trustee Chair in Law, EmeritusUSC Gould School of Law

Christopher D. Stone is an authority on environmental and global issues, including international environmental law, environmental ethics, and trade and the environment. He taught Property, Globalization, Rights of Groups, and International Environmental Law.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard, Professor Stone received a J.D. from Yale Law School. He was Fellow in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago and practiced law at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York before joining the USC Law faculty in 1965. He has taught at University of Michigan Law School and Yale Law School . His recent publications include “Common but Differentiated Responsibilities in International Law” (American Journal of International Law, 2004), “The Environment in Wartime: An Overview” in The Environmental Consequences of War: Legal, Economic, and Scientific Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and Should Trees Have Standing?: And Other Essays on Law, Morals & the Environment (25th anniversary ed., Oceana, 1996).

Professor Stone has written and researched in a variety of areas, including legal philosophy, white collar and corporate crime, alternate energy policy, climate change, biodiversity, ocean policy, and trade law. He is past Chairman of the Committee on Law and Humanities of the Association of American Law Schools, and has served on or worked under the auspices of a variety of governmental agencies including the President's Commission on Communications Policy, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the United States Sentencing Commission as well as the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. In preparation for the Rio Earth Summit (1992 UNCED) Conference, Professor Stone served as Rapporteur for the American Bar Association in shaping the ABA’s Resolutions on International Law of the Environment. He served as an advisor to the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (London), and the Center for International Environmental Law (Washington D.C. )

Books

Should Trees have Standing? And Other Essays on Law, Morals and the Environment (Oceana Publications, 1996)